Anna

Anna is the best European mainstream spy flick since Skyfall. It is stylishly filmed, with a constantly surprising screenplay focusing not only on the action, but also on the characters. It is also well cast and wonderfully balanced politically (CIA vs. KGB). The choreography of the fight scenes, chases and shootouts is precise. Sexually passionate (Anna with men), emotionally tender (Anna with her lesbian girlfriend), seductively promiscuous through and through and as relationally treacherous as the whole dark world of secret agents. As far as spy thrillers go, I maximally enjoyed everything about this film, plus it surprised me with its clever humor and original interpretation of traditional genre motifs. Besson has a peace-loving European heart and is still a great filmmaker! (07/29/2020)

An alternative to Red Sparrow, or rather La Femme Nikita, made by the pop-culture lover of European action films Luc Besson, who cast an unknown girl with a sexy look and long legs instead of an A-list actor. The plot is more complex on the surface, with a lot of flashbacks and time jumps, but in the end it's all about the same: everybody betraying everybody, it's just a matter of how cool they are while doing that. Helen Mirren is the coolest by far, the rest are more or less OK. Ironically, Anna is a film with damnably little action, and the delicious restaurant scene touted in the trailer is the actually the only proper action scene of the whole film. This is impressive, but Besson traditionally gives way to a certain degree of raw reality and leans more towards the style of an action ballet in the style of John Woo, where everything looks gorgeous, everything moves along nicely and the cameraman rotates around the main character in style, but the heroine doesn't grow on you, nor does the main male cast, so all that's left is the aforementioned old lady, whose behaviour and appearance safely evokes echoes of the Cold War of the 1980s and 90s in a typically Russian crude style. And one more thing, the production really messed-up the nineties setting, in one scene there are cars with LED lights on the road, and there are mobile phones everywhere. (09/17/2019)

Luc Besson serves up a great spy action thriller with a sex appeal-laden Sasha Luss. It's exactly the kind of gritty action flick that has been missing from cinemas for the last few years. The main character is having a hard time in life, in fact she's almost broke until she gets the opportunity to become a KGB government assassin with no competition. Cillian Murphy as the CIA chief and Luke Evans from the KGB are also great. The frequent time jumping is slightly confusing at first, but it gets proper meaning as the film progresses and there are surprisingly enough unexpected twists. There could have been more action, but when it comes down to it, you'll be sweating pretty hard. The five-minute restaurant scene in one take rivals John Wick, and cutting guys with a torn plate instead of a knife is an awesome idea! There are more than enough headshots and dead bodies. I had fun, just what I needed at the movies this summer. 80% (07/16/2019)

I would say this film is such a Best Of Luc Besson. A strong heroine, her strong story, some humor, twists and turns aplenty (which give the story an original telling), a stylish atmosphere with typical Eric Serra music, and when it comes to the action, you know you'll want to watch The Professionalnext. Sasha Luss is not only easy on the eye, and a cool killing machine, I surprisingly trusted her as much as I did the regular girl (which is a big difference from Milla Jovovich), but Helen Mirren was absolutely stunning, clearly enjoying her commanding role. The only thing that distracted me – and this is something Besson and Co. could have been careful about – was the use of fairly modern technology in the late eighties and early nineties. Cell phones I might still accept, but laptops and USB drives are too much – it's a shame, because if this had been honest retro with all the trimmings, the film would have been even better. (08/31/2019)

An action B-movie about a KGB assassin who must unleash a secret service war to win her freedom. And the whole thing is unfortunately mediocre fun at best. Two good action scenes and a seductive Sasha Luss in the lead role can't hide the fact that it's all surprisingly stupid and ultimately not very entertaining. (08/27/2019)